Travel, operators grapple with the Ai paradox

One in three travellers use generative artificial intelligence to plan their itinerary, search for information or choose experiences. And as many as 85% of users consider it useful or even essential. Tourism operators are also decidedly well-disposed and optimistic: by 2025, 8% of hospitality operators, 14% of travel agencies and 13% of outdoor experience providers say they have already invested or are investing in structured projects on artificial intelligence, according to data from the Milan Polytechnic's Travel Innovation Observatory, which will be presented today in the Lombard capital.

Even agencies, initially considered the sector most at risk of substitution due to AI, are showing resilience, using technology to enrich and complement their activities, make personalised recommendations and provide information to their clients. There are also the very first experiments with Ai agents.

But, like many other sectors, tourism is not immune to what has come to be known as the Ai Paradox: high promise of technology, but still low concrete impact. Keeping up with innovation is necessary but without losing sight of business objectives and the need to reconcile costs with real benefits, the report says.

"Two issues need to be addressed today. The first is that companies often do not have a clear understanding of the business objectives on which Ai can support them, as they do not even have very structured processes and data. So we have to ask ourselves to what extent it is the technology providers who must support the understanding of what Ai can provide to make them more efficient, and to what extent it is the operators who, at the management level, must take an extra step in terms of understanding,' explains Eleonora Lorenzini, director of the observatory at the Politecnico di Milano. 'Secondly, Ai will have a very strong impact on the customer experience because it will change the way we search and interact. Yet companies still have little understanding of what the actual impact will be on the bottom line, i.e., how much Ai is impacting and how much it will impact in terms of return on investment". The Politecnico will engage in research work this year to establish metrics to measure the return on investment by companies on both technology and better process organisation.

The good news is that larger companies have tackled the transition earlier and in a more structured way. "We have introduced Ai and we are operational in the marketing area in the demand acquisition phase, both for the creation and presentation of content and the management of the digital campaign, in the customer journey area, which means following and accompanying the customer," explains Sara Digiesi, CEO of Bwh Hotels Italy & South-East Europe, a network that reaches over 200 structures and 14 thousand rooms in 15 countries. "And finally we use Ai in the back-office, in function of the management of the company and decision-making, starting with commercial strategies.